Kitten
by MadManMatt64
Summary: On a cold night, a kitten is left on Leo and Aeris's doorstep. How will this all play out? Chapter 5 is up! Unfortunately, yayleo has left our ranks. But I am now joined by my good friend LuxUmbra, who will help see this to the end.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello people of the VG Cats fanfiction category! You may be wondering to yourself, why does this not have a title, why isn't Feral updated yet, and if this isn't Feral, why isn't it Awkward either? Well to answer those questions in order, suspense, writers block, and I haven't even started that yet. Now, this story has been going through my head for a while, and I wanted to see if you guys will enjoy it. Keep in mind, I do have a title for this piece, and the title will come up tomorrow, but it is a teensy bit of a suspense killer, so you may want to read this now.**

**This is a twist on the old "Stranger" formula. How big of a twist? Read on, fellow VG Cats fanfiction enthusiasts, and find out.**

Prologue

It was a quiet night in Toronto. The snow was gently falling as a hooded figure that held a heavily wrapped object in their arms made their way down the shadows of the hood completely covered their face making their features unrecognizable. The only clue to their identity was the tail sticking out from under the trench coat they were wearing.

Near the end of the road, the figure saw an open air apartment complex. Their pace quickened, their shoes cracking the thin ice that lined the sidewalk. The figure had to get there, nothing would stop it from getting there. A life depended on it after all.

There were many buildings to choose from, making the choice much more dangerous. It was like playing Russian Roulette, the people behind the door either being an empty chamber, or a bullet, waiting to explode and take the figure's life. Steam came out from under the hood, the result of the figure's heavy sigh. Deciding the take the initiative and accept the consequences of the decision, they steeled themselves and made their way to the closest door they saw.

As the figure made their way to the door, they failed to see the ice that had formed in front of it. A simple step and the person slipped, almost completely loosing their balance. Luckily, they slipped forward, landing in kneeling position and still holding on to the object. Another cloud of steam came out, signifying a relieved sigh. Then, still kneeling, the figure raised it's arm and rapped their knuckles on the door sharply.

Leo's POV

Dammit, who could that be? Pausing from my Call of Duty multiplayer session, I walk out of my bedroom and down the over where the front door is, careful not to wake Aeris up. After all, she's not all that pleasant when she wakes up, and I highly doubt that she would want to be rudely awakened in the middle of the night. Lucky for whoever it is at the door that they didn't wake Aeris up, or else they would be in for a rather unpleasant surprise.

When I got to the door, I looked through the peephole to see who was there. I was surprised to see that nobody was there, and also slightly angry as well, thinking that it might be some damn ding-dong ditcher who was trying to keep me from my game. I had turned my back to the door and was halfway to my room when suddenly the knocking started again. Against my better judgment, I went back to the door and opened it. Nobody. Damn you whoever it is doing this, making me come outside in the cold and stop playing my game.

I was about to close the door when I heard a cough from the ground. Slowly, I looked down, a feeling of dread filling me. When I saw what made the noise, I looked back up and took a look around outside to see if there was anyone else around. I then looked back over my shoulder and called, "Aeris, could you come out here please?"

I heard an irritated groan come from her bedroom as she got up. Usually I would smirk at that, but right now all I could focus on was the current situation. I heard a door open and stomping behind me as she walked up next to me, and I could tell that she was pissed. When she stood next to me at the door she said in a agitated tone of voice, "Okay Leo, what is it that's _so _important that you had to wake me up?"

I couldn't say anything, all I could do was point down. She followed the direction that my finger was pointing, and I could tell that she had become just as surprised and shocked as I was. For on the ground outside our apartment was a person, a cat to be precise. Although, this wasn't just any cat; this was a kitten, who didn't even look to be about a month old.

**How's that for a twist in the formula, huh? Now what'll happen? I don't know exactly, but I have a vague idea. Although, now that this is out, I fear that I may be spreading myself too thin. Don't expect an update on anything that's mine for a while. Review Please!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Kitty

General POV

For what felt like an eternity, the two cats just stood there, dumbfounded by Leo's discovery. On their doorstep was a small kitten, wrapped in a blue blanket. From a small hole in the blanket, they could see that it had a light gray face, but that the fur surrounding it was white. It was sleeping, not giving of any sounds other than the occasional cough or gargle.

After she collected her thoughts, Aeris turned to Leo with wide eyes, "Don't just stand there, bring it inside!"

Leo complied without haste and quickly but gently picked up the small kitten, bringing it inside and setting it down on the counter, stepping away from the counter and just staring back at the blue bundle of a blanket with a slack jaw. He and Aeris just stood there, focusing their entire attentions on the kitten. After a while, Leo broke the silence, "Um, Aeris? Why did we just find a kitten on our doorstep?"

Aeris would've sighed, but for some reason, she just couldn't, "How should I know?"

"Well, there has to be a reason.", Leo pointed out, somewhat bluntly.

Aeris thought about it for a second, "I guess whoever this kitten belonged to couldn't take care of it. Whoever they were probably thought that this would be as good a place as any to put it…" With that she took a step towards the phone. "Too bad they were wrong."

Leo, noticing Aeris making her way towards the phone, asked in a slightly confused tone "Aeris? What are you doing?"

"I'm going to call Child Protective Services." She answered simply.

Leo's ear twitched somewhat from the mention of the CPS. "Why?" He asked, his tone somehow off, as if he didn't like what she was doing.

She stopped walking and turned to face him. "What do you mean 'why'? We can't take care of a kitten; we can barely take care of ourselves for Christ sakes! It'd be best if we got the CPS over here and let them take care of this." As she finished she was picking up the phone and began to dial the CPS's number.

Before she could finish, Leo grasped the phone out of her hand and put it back on the receiver, a solemn expression on his face. Aeris looked at him with her mouth agape and her eyebrows slanted; confused over the exuberant behavior he was showing. "Leo! What the hell?"

Leo turned back to the kitten, and said to Aeris, "Aeris, do you really think that if whoever left that kitten here wanted to call the CPS, that we would be having this problem right now?"

She groaned rubbing the sides of her forehead in frustration, "Leo, please, for God sakes look at the big picture here. We. Cannot. Raise. A kitten. We don't have the money **or** the know-how to pull it off. Besides, I hate kittens."

"Didn't you use to babysit in high school?"

Aeris raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, so? That doesn't mean I enjoyed it."

"Aw c'mon, you're great with kids!" Leo smiled persuasively, hoping to get her on his side.

Aeris scoffed, "No, I'm not. Have I ever told you about the time this one kid pinched my boob? I locked him in a closet until his parents came home."

Leo flinched, "Doesn't that seem a little harsh?"

Aeris shook her head with an evil smile. "Not really. He had it coming really, he was a huge brat."

Leo raised an eyebrow, not liking where this was going. "What about Vincent?"

"What, my brother?", she made a rocking motion with her hand, "He was alright sometimes. Although, you try taking care of a nine year old when your parents aren't home to stop him. I once locked him in a closet until my parents came home."

"Is that your solution to every problem having to do with kids? Locking them in closets?" Leo asked, raising his voice.

Aeris shrugged, "Hey, it works. Really well, by the way." she shook her head, "We're getting off topic.", she pointed to the kitten, "We are getting rid of it."

Leo gasped, "Aeris! Why would you say that! Would you say that to your kids?"

Aeris rolled her eyes, "I wouldn't know Leo, I don't have kids."

"Yeah, but still!", Leo whined, "Besides, why did you call the kitten an "it"? It has a gender you know."

Aeris folded her arms, "Alright genius, what's the kid's gender?"

"It's...", Leo started but didn't finish. He walked over to the counter and closely looked at the kitten. He turned back to Aeris, looking smug, "Its a boy." He replied triumphantly.

"And how, pray-tell, did you find this out?", she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because the blanket's blue, duh!", Leo said it as though it were a painfully obvious fact.

Aeris closed her eyes and sighed, her usual response to Leo's moments of supreme dumbassery. She pushed him aside. "Get out of the way."

Leo turned away, somewhat embarrassed, as though he didn't want to see the gender. Then, a short while later, Aeris looked up and said, "Its a girl."

Leo turned around and said, "Awww, I was hoping that it was going to be a guy…"

"And why's that?" Aeris asked, slightly curious why he would want the kitten to be a boy.

Leo sighed with a frown. "If its a girl, then she probably won't like video games, she'll spend all our money on clothes, and I don't want to have a kid going through some shitty emo phase around here."

Aeris looked at Leo with an "are you serious" look and said, "You realize that **I'm **a girl and that** I **like video games, spend **barely** any money on clothes, and have **never **gone through an emo phase?"

Leo chuckled under his breath, "Well, I don't really think of you as a _girl _Aeris, I think of you more as...", he remembered who he was talking to and noticed that she was giving him a glare as well as cracking her knuckles. He gulped. "…As a smart, pretty, and very funny women." He finished uneasily.

She patted his shoulder, "Nice save." She said with an amused smile

Leo sighed in relief, glad that he didn't get beat up. He then went back to what he was trying to do earlier, "So can we keep her? Can we? Can we?"

Aeris face palmed with a groan, "Leo, this isn't some sort of pet! This is a kitten, a kitten with needs! She needs to be taken care of, and we don't have any money to spare!"

Leo looked at the ground a moment, then said, "Wait here."

He went into his bedroom, leaving Aeris alone with the kitten. She spared a glace at the kitten. She did have to admit, the kitten was a kinda cute. _Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to keep her around…_ she thought, but then she came to her senses, _NO! We can't keep her around! She'd be too much work! Leo is bad enough as it is!_

Leo then walked in, carrying a medium sized box. Before Aeris could ask what it was, Leo opened the flaps to reveal something that Aeris didn't even know he had.

Money.

It was full of money. Aeris looked at him with incredulity all over her face, "How did you-"

She was cut off by Leo smiling proudly. "Its my life savings. I haven't spent any of it ever since I started building it up. I figure that this may be the perfect time to bring it out."

Aeris's confusion was now replaced with anger, "Wait wait wait. You've been sitting on a stockpile of money for all these years, and yet you use **my** money to buy a box full of goddamn rocks!"

Leo shrugged, "Yeah, but that's in the past. You need to move on Aeris."

Aeris growled. She didn't appreciate Leo having a huge pile of money that he never used that could've been used to help themselves out, but to expect anything else out of the King of Dumbasses was nearly impossible. Again, Leo asked, "So can we keep her now? I have the money to raise her, we can do it!"

Aeris sighed.

"Come on Aeris! PLEEEEEASE." Leo begged.

"Fine!" she growled. "Keep her if you want to so fucking much!"

"Yay!" Leo jumped, surprisingly not waking up the kitten in doing so.

Aeris shook her head and turned around to head for her bedroom. "I'm going to bed. Don't wake me up again." She warned the gray cat.

Before Aeris made it to her door in the hall, Leo shouted out to her, "Hey, Aeris!"

Clenching her fists and turning around, Aeris screamed, "What Leo?"

Leo picked up the kitten and cradled it in his arms while he stepped towards Aeris. "Shouldn't we give her a name? She is going to be staying with us after all. What do you think her name should be?"

Aeris held her forehead in her hand and said, "Honestly Leo, I don't give a damn."

Leo looked disheartened at first, then his ears perked up as a thought struck him, "I know what to name her! Scarlet!"

Aeris looked confused about how Leo could think of a name so quickly. He must've interpreted her expression, because he said, "My favorite movie is 'Gone With the Wind'. What you just said kinda reminded me of it." He looked back down at the kitten and smiled.

Aeris still just stood there and stared at Leo. "You like 'Gone With the Wind'?" She asked, greatly surprised.

"Yeah, why?" Leo asked taking his eyes off the kitten.

She shook her head. "Um, no reason. Night Leo."

She turned around and headed straight to her room, closing her door and climbing into her bed without another word to Leo, quite glad to be able to relax after what had just happened. But she was still slightly confused. Leo liked "Gone With The Wind", one of her favorite books and movies of all time.

_Probably just a coincidence…_ Aeris thought as she drifted back off to sleep.

**Done! Great chapter in my opinion. Special thanks to yayleo, my new partner in writing this story. Seriously, this was 49% on my part and 51% on his. The rough was nothing compared to this. Anyway, Read and Review! **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Shopping

Aeris woke up the next morning feeling just as tired as she was before they had found the kitten on their doorstep. Taking her covers off, she sat over the side of the bed and rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear her blurry vision. After getting up and stretching, she made her way over to her door and opened it, leading out into the hall. Turning into the kitchen, she noticed that she was the first one up. Odd, considering that Leo was usually up by now wolfing down his breakfast. He almost always got up before her so that he could get to his daily gaming sessions as early as possible.

Looking over into the hall, Aeris spotted Leo walking out of his room with Scarlet cradled in his arms. Spotting Aeris in the middle of the kitchen, he gave her a tired smile and yawned, "Morning Aeris. What's up?"

"Nothing much." she said, raising an eyebrow at his apparently fatigued form. "Why're you up so late?"

He shrugged with a chuckle, "Scarlet kinda kept me up last night."

Aeris felt a small twinge of annoyance at the mention of the kitten, but she brushed it off, "What are you talking about? I didn't hear any crying."

"Oh well, she wasn't really crying. More like waking up in the middle of the night and clawing at me." he explained.

Aeris snickered, amused that Leo's latest display of stupidity had caused him some harm. It was then that she realized something. "Wait a minute, you're telling me that you let her sleep in your bed?"

"Well yeah." Leo replied, incredulous as to what Aeris was getting at. "Where else was she supposed to sleep?"

Aeris groaned and face palmed, "Jesus Leo, anywhere but there. She could've suffocated under the sheets for God's sake."

Leo felt ice flow through his heart at the very idea and held Scarlet a little closer. "Since when did you care anyways?"

Aeris was a little taken aback with the retaliation, but paid it little attention. "I don't, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't give you advice. I don't want the death of a I-don't-know-how-old kitten on my conscience."

Leo sighed and looked down at the still sleeping kitten, "Yeah, I guess you're right. You know, the only reason that she slept in my bed was because I couldn't figure out where to put her."

"You could've put her in a box with a blanket or something." Aeris pointed out.

Leo's ear twitched a little when she said that, but this went unnoticed by Aeris. "No. I don't want to put her in a box. For all I know, you could ship her away."

To say Aeris was shocked Leo would make such an accusation would be an understatement. She gave him a hard look and said, "Okay, two things. One: Seriously, you really think I would do that? I may not want the thing around, but I'm not heartless. Two: Why not use the blanket in a box? It's cheap, and money is a little hard to come by."

Leo answered Aeris' second question without skipping a beat. "Well, I just don't want her living in a box all her life." He said flatly.

Aeris rolled her eyes, seeing that the argument wasn't going anywhere. "It would only be until she can use a proper bed Leo. Besides, a kitten wouldn't care about where it's sleeping."

"Yeah, but I do, and I think she needs a crib."

Aeris scoffed, getting annoyed with Leo's persistence, "She doesn't need a crib. Just put the blanket in the box. Problem solved."

"Its not going to work forever." Leo pointed out with an air of smugness in his voice, rocking the still sleeping Scarlet in his arms.

"No, it won't. But right now its the best solution. We don't have a lot of money." Aeris retorted, irritated by what she interpreted as the condescending tone Leo was using with her.

Leo looked at Aeris oddly, "What are you talking about? We've got my big box of bucks. Its still on the counter."

With a feeling of dread, Aeris turned around and spotted the box, labeled "Leo's Munny Box", a chibi face drawn right beside the labeling. It looked as though it were just asking to be stolen. _Now_she remembered. Briefly, she wondered if she repressed the memory so that she wouldn't fly into a homicidal rage, but this was interrupted when she said, "Right. So, what are you going to do? Buy a crib and all the other stuff your going to need in order to take care of your latest mistake?"

He shook his head and gave her a sideways glance. "Nope. You are."

Aeris was, as can be expected, less than pleased by the idea. "Wait, you're asking me to go out and get things for _your_kitten? She's your responsibility."

"That's why I'm having you get the stuff." he explained, "She's my kitten now, and to be honest, I don't quite trust her with you."

Aeris gave him a wide-eyed, disbelieving look. "Leo, I know it 'breaks the illusion'", she retorted with heavy sarcasm, "But please, listen to yourself. I'm the one who has the experience here. If anything, you should be begging me to stay here and watch her."

"Well, I love her more." he replied.

Aeris's look became less disbelieving and more of an annoyed, having-to-deal-with-Leo's-shit look. "Leo you've only had her for not even a day. You can't love something that fast."

"I can and I do." he said, holding Scarlet across his chest now in an apparent display of defiance. "I love her a lot."

Aeris shook her head, "Look, I don't care about how much you think you love her. Right now, I want to know why it's me that has to go and get all the kitten stuff."

"You said you have all the experience, so you know what I'm gonna need to take care of her." he explained.

"You know what she needs too, Leo." Aeris replied in a snarky voice.

"Come on Aeris.", Leo begged, "I just want to spend some time with her. Please?"

"No.", Aeris' response was firm, and she crossed her arms across her chest to assert her statement.

It was at this moment that Scarlet woke up, releasing a cute little meow as she did so. In a extremely rare stroke of brilliance, Leo then said this, "Aeris, if you won't do it for me, then do it for Scarlet."

Again, Aeris replied with a hard "No."

Leo then adopted a baby talk tone, "Come on Aeris. Wook at the cute wittle face."

He then held Scarlet in front of his face, causing Aeris to look directly at Scarlet. Immediately, her heart melted at the sheer amount of adorable that was being given off. Scarlet's eyes were almost anime-ish in their size, and their deep blue color only added to the overall amount of cute.

You have to give Aeris credit, she tried to resist. She had nearly beaten the barrage of cuteness Scarlet had assaulted on her, but when the small gray and white kitten reached a paw out in an effort to touch the pink cat's nose, it proved too much for Aeris.

"Fine!" She screamed as she threw her paws up in the air. "I'll get your damn kitten the stuff she needs!"

Slinging Scarlet in his arms once more, Leo smiled in triumph. "There, was that so hard?"

"Yes." Aeris spat. "Painful actually. Damn kitten."

Leo ignored her fuming and went to his money-box. He took out a number of bills, counted them, tied them up in a rubber band, and handed the bundle over to Aeris, "Here. That's about five hundred dollars.", he told her, "That should be enough to get all the stuff she needs."

"Yeah, yeah.", Aeris said, still pissed she had to do this. "Can I at least make myself look presentable before I go?"

Nodding his head, Leo took Scarlet back into his room as Aeris prepared to do what really should've been Leo's errands.

Aeris made her way over to the bathroom. Once she had shut the door behind her, Aeris stared at herself for a long time in the mirror and rubbed her face. The day had only just begun, and she could already tell it was going to be an extremely long one.

After splashing some water in her face to help wake her up, Aeris ran the shower, changed out of her PJs, and stepped into the tub, allowing herself a small moment of bliss as she felt the warm water trickle down her body. She loved showers, despite the common belief that cats hated water, and since Leo hadn't specified when it was he wanted her to head out, Aeris stayed in the shower for the better part of the morning, standing and relishing in the warmth of the water until it abruptly became freezing, at which point she got out of the tub and dried off. She went about her daily routine of brushing, rinsing, flossing, then rinsing once more with mouthwash before stepping out of the bathroom and walking back down to her bedroom. She threw off the towel covering her and quickly changed into her everyday-wear; purple jeans, purple tee, pink jacket, before she straightened her hair and fixed it with her favorite black scrunchy. Finally deciding she looked good enough to tackle the day, Aeris stepped out of her room and headed for the door, making sure to grab the lump of cash Leo had left her on the counter before leaving.

Doing a quick recount of the bills since she wouldn't trust Leo's counting skills to save her life, Aeris realized with a surprised face that there was a perfect sum of five hundred dollars in the bundle of cash. Giving a hmph of indifference, Aeris stuck the money in her coat pocket and was about to head towards the door when she saw it. "Leo's Munny Box". It was just sitting there, still on the counter, Leo having not moved it when he gave her the five hundred dollars earlier. She thought about how when she had seen it earlier that it had looked as though it had just been begging to be stolen. Now it was as if the cardboard box was singing a siren's call, telling her to take what was inside for herself.

It didn't really seem right. Aeris wasn't exactly the person you would picture when you thought of the kindest person in the world, but she still had a conscience. Leo had been her friend, her best friend, for as long as she could remember. Stealing his money from him would be outright wrong.

"_But he's done it._", She thought to herself, "_He's done tons of things before that could be considered worse than stealing…_"

Aeris thought the situation over, and after going over the list she had of all the things Leo had put her through, she came to a decision.

"_I'm the one that has to go out and get all the kitten crap, why not treat myself while I'm at it?_"

Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, Aeris tip-toed over to the box as quietly as she could, not making a single sound along the way. She made it to the counter and flipped the box open, revealing more money in a single place than Aeris had ever seen. Checking again to make sure Leo might not have slipped into the kitchen without her knowing, Aeris quickly grabbed ten dollars from the horde of bills and stuck it into her pocket with the rest of the money, a satisfied smile on her lips and the thrill that only came with stealing in her chest.

"_He wants me to waste my day for his kitten? Fine, but the idiot better be ready for compensation._"

Heading away from the counter and out of the kitchen, Aeris grabbed the car keys off the hook bedside the outside door, making sure she had everything she was going to need for the day before she stepped out of the apartment. She opened the door and was met with the warm feeling of the pre-noon sun on the outside.

"See ya Aeris!" Leo called from his room. Aeris turned around to see him lying down on his bed, holding Scarlet up in the air just a few inches from his face, the tiny gray and white kitten smiling sweetly while giggling as she tried to reach down at touch Leo with her small paws. Aeris grumbled under her breath over the upbeat air in Leo's voice, but waved her paw nonchalantly to her roommate in response and said, "Yeah, see you, Leo."

And with that, Aeris left the apartment and closed the door behind her. As she did, she took a deep breath of the crisp air and exhaled, enjoying the fresh air. Feeling that it was a little nippy, she tightened her jacket around herself as she walked to the parking lot where her car waited. Of course, car was an overstatement. Replace the word "car" with "shit on wheels" and you would have a more accurate word. As she walked up to it, she could feel revulsion at the vehicle. It was a blue van, with more than problem that could be seen when you looked right at it. The windshield was cracked from the side to the center, there was more than one missing hubcap, and the color had become washed out with age and lack of care. But inside, that was even worse. The interior was dirty, the air conditioning was non-existent, not to mention that horrible smell of vanilla.

Although, as much as Aeris hated the car, she could do nothing to trash it: it was a gift from her parents when she got her Driver's License, and Aeris was a firm believer of not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Besides, her weekly paycheck was just enough to pay for gas, rent and other living expenses. A new car was simply out of the question.

Sighing, she unlocked the car and stepped inside, the sickeningly sweet smell invading her nostrils as she did so. It was her attempt to make the car smell better. It failed. Awfully. Although on the plus side, it was slightly better than the cigarette smoke that permeated the van before she put in the air freshener.

Sticking the key into the ignition, Aeris turned it and began the relatively short drive to Costco. As she did, her thoughts eventually rested on her idiot roommate and his latest fuck-up. Aeris leaned back in her seat a little so that she could relax slightly. She hadn't lied to Leo the night before: she didn't like kids much. Sure she could tolerate them in moderation, and when they behaved themselves she didn't mind them much, but the brats, the entitled little shits who were guaranteed lucrative acting careers and death by drug overdose, those were the ones that she hated with the fiery intensity of a million volcanoes on the sun. She had fond memories of locking the little bastards into closets while she was babysitting and they got out of hand.

Those were mostly the boys though. She was far more tolerant of girls, though this was probably more because of bias than anything else. She briefly wondered if that was the reason that she actually let Leo keep Scarlet. After all, for a while, she did think that it was a good idea to keep around that little bundle of cuteness and manipulation. She shook her head. No, that wasn't the case. She did it to see how all of this would blow up in Leo's face. Granted, she planned on stepping in if Scarlet was in danger, but it would still be fun to see just how much Leo would cock this whole thing up.

Although, she did have to admit, as much as she hated the thought of another mouth to feed and the fact that she would be sharing an apartment with a kitten, she kind of liked Scarlet. Something about the little kitten made her seem different to the others she babysat when she was in high school. Like some sort of connection. Aeris rolled her eyes at the idea. How could she connect with a kitten that probably didn't even have a personality yet? It made no sense.

She decided to stop thinking about the whole thing altogether when she got to the parking lot of the Costco. Sighing, she got out of the car with a scowl that said. "I really wish I wasn't here right now.", etched on her face. To add to her annoyance, she realized that she had parked a solid 50 meters away from the store. Her earlier hunch was somewhat off. This wasn't going to be an extremely long day. No, this was going to be the longest fucking day of her life.

Stomping over to the store's entrance, she was spotted by a foolish greeter who was just trying to do his job. Seeing that the disgruntled Aeris was within earshot, he was about to do the customary greeting, when out of nowhere, she held her paw out in front of him. She then said in a low voice, "Don't say anything. I just want to get in, get some crap for my idiot friend, and get out. I don't need you telling me that I'm welcome in a place that's trying to whore as much money out of me as possible. So, next time you see me, I don't want to hear anything. Okay?"

The greeter nodded vigorously as Aeris grabbed a trolly (as it would be needed to get some of the things that Leo wanted for Scarlet) and went inside. As she did, and when the greeter assumed she was out of earshot, he said under his breath, "What a bitch."

Aeris stopped, turned around, and asked harshly, "What was that?"

"Nothing!", was the greeter's hurried response.

Narrowing her eyes, Aeris turned around and decided to ignore the greeter altogether. Really, he was small fry compared to what Leo was, so she just decided that her time would be better spent trying to get this errand out of the way as fast as possible.

Heading off to the right side of the wholesale, Aeris quickly went over everything she was going to have to get today so Leo could do a half decent job of raising the kitten. First of all she was going to have to pick up a crib. Leo never specified how good a crib he had wanted, so Aeris made a mental note to grab the cheapest one she could find. Then of course there was the dispensable goods, such as food and diapers. She shuddered at the thought of Leo changing a diaper. It was one of those things you never wanted to think about too much, but when it got in your mind it had a habit of not leaving. Shaking her mind free of that unpleasant scenario (oh God, the walls!), Aeris continued towards the kitten section of the store, making sure to go over the mental checklist she had compiled a few times before arriving.

"_Alright, so I'm grabbing a crib, food, diapers, clothes, pacifier, a bottle, formula, baby monitors, and a blanket."_

"_Leo, you so owe me for this."_

With her teeth beginning to grind against each other, Aeris reached the kitten section of the Costco. The first thing she did was go over to the cribs. There was a pretty good selection, so she was able to spot a suitable choice fairly quickly. An employee came over to help Aeris load the large box onto the trolley, but was sent scampering away when she yelled at him that she could handle the task easily enough on her own.

"I don't need help!" She had screamed at the unfortunate fellow.

"I'm just trying to do my job!" The cat hollered back as he fled from the hostile pink feline. Aeris simply wrinkled her nose in a sneer in response. She didn't need help with anything. Never had, never will. And that was the way she liked it.

Managing to remove the large box from the shelf without much difficulty, Aeris dropped the package down onto the trolley, a dull thud resounding from the cart when she did. Secretly hoping she might have caused a bit of damage to the crib with her rough handling, Aeris pulled away from the cribs and went over to the clothes. In it she found pajamas, bibs, and blankets in absolute rainbows of colors. Some were simply composed of a single color, while others supported various themes with their coloring and pictures on them. As you could imagine, Aeris went right for the boring clothes, picking up a small pile of blue and green PJs, a plain white bib, and the first pink pacifier she saw. She briefly considered grabbing a small t-shirt with a cartoonish heart on it, but quickly discarded the thought. The less money she had to spend, the better.

"_So I got the crib and some clothes, so that just leaves food, baby monitors, and a bottle."_

Aeris made her way over to the kitten food, a bit of a bounce in her step as she did so. Only around an hour-and-a-half had passed so far, and while it still felt quite long to her, Aeris knew enough to know that she was getting the shopping done rather quickly. Keep in mind however she was still beyond annoyed with Leo right now. He had the nerve to ask her to go out and waste her time off for something that was **his** responsibility. It made Aeris grip the handle of the cart a bit tighter. It wasn't so much that he had asked her, but more the _way_ he'd asked her, like it was her job. Actually, the more she thought about it, he didn't ask, he practically told her! That little shit! What the hell was he thinking, telling her what to do!

Now Aeris was practically bending the metal between her fingers as these thoughts went through her mind. The more she thought about it, the madder she got. Right now Leo was at home, probably playing Xbox to his heart's content with that damn kitten beside him, chugging one of many cokes. The thought alone made Aeris clench her paw tighter around the handle bar, the metal beginning to dent somewhat from the force being exerted on it. She imagined him lounging on the couch, carefree and munching on one of her bags of Doritos, smiling smugly in the knowledge that he didn't have to do one thing today. Aeris burned with anger at these thoughts. She remembered how she had second thought taking that extra bit of money for herself, how she had had a brief moment of guilt a while later. She didn't feel the guilt now. She was happy she'd taken the money from under Leo's nose, no matter how small the sum was. It was what he got for hog-tying her into this, and she was glad she did what she did.

Aeris quickly remembered where she was, and took in a few breaths to calm herself. The last thing she wanted to do right now was lose her temper in the middle of a store. That would just be embarrassing, and she didn't need this day to be any longer than it already was. Moving away from the clothes and towards the food, Aeris made a mental note to spend as much of the extra cash as possible.

As could be expected, Aeris loaded up on the absolute cheapest food she could find. The trolley was loaded near it's brim with 99 cent jars of carrot, pea, and peach flavored goop along with a canister or two of kitten formula that was on sale (useless information is the best information). Aeris was actually a little pleased with herself. She was getting all of this done so much faster than she thought it would have taken. With any luck she would be out of here before…

2:30!

Aeris had left the apartment at 11:30. That meant she had been at the Costco for three hours so far.

"_Well, that's a buzz-kill."_, She thought bitterly as she hauled the trolley away from the food and made off to get the last few things she needed. Pushing the trolley along rather quickly, Aeris grabbed the first bottle her eyes landed upon, snatching it off the shelf without even stopping. Next she moved to grab a pair of baby monitors, them being on the other end of the aisle and were about to be acquired but a rather chubby blonde cat. From where she was, Aeris could see that those were the last pair of monitors on the shelf. There wouldn't be any more until the store got a new shipment in next Sunday, meaning that if she didn't get those ones, Leo would probably sweet-talk his way into convincing her to come back here and get them, with the possibility of asking her to get even more kitten things while she was at it.

That wasn't going to happen. Aeris wouldn't allow it.

Placing her one foot on the end of the trolley, Aeris used her other one to push of against the ground and sped towards the chubby cat and the baby monitor she was now holding in her paw. Aeris pushed off the floor once more, sending her blazing past the other cat. Just as she rushed by her, Aeris reached out and grabbed the baby monitor from the chubby cat's paw, smiling triumphantly as she did so. It wasn't until Aeris had screeched to a halt and sharply turned around a corner that the woman realized that she had just gotten her monitor snatched. The realization made he yell out in anger, cursing the cat how just stolen the item from under her nose, while Aeris, now in the aisle beside the steaming cat, snickered to herself from how fun it was snatching the monitor from chubby.

"Better luck next time, saddlebags." she chuckled under her breath as she began pushing the trolley to what she believed to be the direction of the cheek-out tills, having finally finished the task Leo had coerced her into doing.

Pushing the loaded trolley towards the front of the store, Aeris realized that she was surrounded by rows upon rows of stuffed animals. In her hurry to get away from chubby in the other aisle, Aeris had turned down the stuffed toy section of the store. On either side of her were teddy bears, care bears, and cute frogs as far as the eye could see. If she was in a better mood, Aeris might have been happy to be surrounded by the fuzzy toys. She remembered back to when she was younger and had a small collection of plushies of her own. She used to hug and play with them when she was happy, but more times than not she would throw them across the room and sometimes even stomped on them when she was annoyed with Leo. Honestly, she missed her teddies. They were always there and did what they needed to do to make her day better. She wished she had kept them, but she sold them long ago, when she and Leo had graduated and moved in together. She thought she was too old to be keeping such things around, but it didn't take more than a few days for her to regret selling her stuffed friends.

"I guess that's why they say life's a bitch." she mumbled sadly as she made her way down the aisle.

She was almost out when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. A single tan furred teddy bear was sitting on a shelf to her right. The shelf above and below it nearly overflowing with other stuffed animals, but it sat in the middle, all alone. Aeris stopped where she was and turned to get a better look at the bear. She saw that it was fairly plain; it had simple black beads for eyes, while its fur was a chocolaty brown with a few small patches of golden blonde. On it's left arm a small red ribbon was tied on it's wrist, giving it the aura of a sincere and thoughtful gift when it wasn't for anyone in particular. Aeris stared at the bear a moment before picking it up in her paws. She had had a bear just like this when she was younger. It was her favorite out of all her plushies. She only ever played with it, sparing it from the occasional abuse she would inflict on her other ones. She called it Reggie, and he was the last one she gave away. She remembered actually crying for a while after that. Reggie had been her best friend in the entire world, besides Leo of course. She owned him way before she had even met Leo. The memory brought a small tear to her eye before she hastily wiped it away. What was the point of crying over something she couldn't get back? She'd made her decision a long time ago, and she'd stuck with it, meaning she had to deal with the consequences afterword.

With a sigh Aeris placed the teddy bear back on the lonesome shelf. She turned back to the trolley to leave, but for some reason she found it impossible. Something seemed to be anchoring her in place, and she knew what it was. It was that teddy bear. Whether it was because the bear itself, or the memories it brought back to Aeris, she knew she wouldn't be leaving the store without at least getting to hold it in her paw a few more minutes.

Taking the bear off the shelf, Aeris once again looked at it, studying it's features intently. She had no intention of buying it for herself. It wasn't the same as Reggie, plus she would never hear the end of it from Leo once he found out, but looking at it now, Aeris felt as though she **had**to buy it. She couldn't explain it, but she felt that the bear had some sort of...importance that was for now, unknown to her. Aeris didn't know what to make of it. She didn't want to buy it, but at the same time didn't want to put it back on the shelf. Her predicament was frustrating her.

_Maybe if I buy it for the kid?_

Aeris considered it. She didn't like the fact that Scarlet was going to be staying around, but she didn't exactly _dislike_ Scarlet herself. Sure it was going to be hell putting up with her, but she'd been doing that for years Leo, so what difference was it going to make? And yet, Aeris was a little hesitant of the idea. It might give Leo the idea she was going to help raising the kitten, something which was** not**going to happen. With that, Aeris put the bear back on the the shelf, albeit rather hesitantly.

She stood there a moment, thinking, _"__It's just a bear. What's the worst it could do? She might even throw it at Leo a few times."_

With a defeated sigh, Aeris went to retrieve the plushy from the shelf, when her paw collided with another. Immediately the foreign paw retreated.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't know you wanted this one too." Came a voice that was all to familiar to Aeris. Turning to face the owner of the voice, Aeris came face to face with a female cat with a light brown coat and violet eyes, clothed in a pair of skinny jeans, a black t-shirt, and a purple vest, with her hair tied back in a long ponytail. This was an old friend of Aeris', one she had know since her high school days.

"I know that voice," She smiled at the cat in front of her. Her name was Ashley Moore, and it had been some time since she and Aeris had seen each other, a few weeks at least.

Ashley looked confused a moment before she recognized Aeris, her eyes lighting up with the realization.

"Aeris! Hey! Long time no see huh?" She came forward and caught Aeris off-guard with on of her trade-mark big hugs. She wasn't all that surprised actually. Ashley was always a big hugger. Always had been, always would be. Aeris chuckle to herself as she hugged Ashley back. She always enjoyed one of her hugs. They had a way of brightening your day like nothing else.

After a second the two friends released each other and Ashley got a big smile on her face.

"So, how've ya been?" She asked with enthusiasm.

Aeris simply shrugged. "Eh, same old, same old I guess. What about you?"

"Oh nothing interesting. Shawn's still a doorknob, but what else is new." Ashley laughed, Aeris along with her.

"How's Ronny? I haven't heard from him in forever."

Ashley blew a raspberry in response to the question, making Aeris smirk, amused. "You're still mad about what he did at Shawn's birthday?"

"HELL YES I AM! THAT ASSHOLE NEARLY BRUISED MY ASS WITH HOW HARD HE HIT IT!" Ashley screamed, her cheeks becoming flush with the embarrassing memory. Aeris simply laughed at the brown cat's expense. That had been one hell of a party, one she wouldn't soon forget.

"So what're you doing here?" Ashley asked, suddenly devoid of the rage that had course through her mere seconds earlier, being replaced with her inquisitive curiosity.

Aeris grumbled indifferently, frowning. "Leo strung me into grabbing some shit for him."

"Heh, that sounds like Leo alright. What do you have in there anyways?" Ashley leaned over to the side to see what Aeris had loaded onto the trolley. It only took a second for Ashley to see all the kitten-related merchandise Aeris had acquired. Only a second was required for a small switch to go off in the back of her mind, telling her something which brought one the happiest smiles she'd ever worn onto her face. Aeris noticed all of this, cluing in to what Ashley was thinking, and immediately set herself to correcting her friend's thinking.

"It's not what you think Ash! See, last night-"

"YOU AND LEO HOOKED UP!" Ashley interrupted by jumping up and down in the air in a joyous manner before hopping over to Aeris and re-wrapped her arms around her, continuing to bounce with glee.

"What? NO! Ash, listen to me for a second-"

"I'm so happy for you guys! I always knew you liked each other! This is so awesome!"

"Ashley, listen to me for Christ sakes!"

"I just can't believe you and Leo are having a a kitten! Oh, I bet it's going to be so cute! Is it a boy or a girl? Can me and Shawn be the godparents? OH PLEASE LET US BE THE GODPARENTS AERIS! YOU'D BE THE GREATEST FRIEND EVER IF-"

"ASHLEY!" Aeris screamed, making Ashley stop her jumping and get a scared look on her face.

"Yes Aeris?" She asked in a small voice.

"Can I _please _talk now?" She replied sarcastically.

"Sure."

So Aeris told her the whole story of last night; she and Leo finding Scarlet on their doorstep, Leo convincing her to let him keep her, the events of this morning (with the exception of grabbing that extra bit of money), and everything that had happened so far up to this point, though she omitted telling her why she was getting the teddy bear. Occasionally Ashley would interrupt to ask a question, such as what the kitten looked like, what Aeris thought about the whole situation, and other such things, thought for the most part she was quiet, listening intently with a small smile. When Aeris told her about Leo's horde of cash, she was expressed even more surprised than Aeris had last night.

"Leo can save money?" She exclaimed.

"I know. Shocking, right?" Aeris replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well, I mean...It's Leo! My God, I didn't think he could keep a dollar to himself for five minutes, much less for years, especially that kind of amount."

Aeris simply replied with a "hmph" of agreement.

A second or two passed between the two girls before Ashley got a pouty look on her and gave Aeris a disappointed look.

"Well that kinda sucks. I was hoping you guys had finally started something."

Aeris rolled her eyes. She had been seen that one coming a mile away.

"For the last time Ash, me and Leo are just friends. Plus, he's an idiot. Nothing will ever happen between us."

Ashley smirked mischievously and began pushing her shopping cart towards the end of the aisle. "Oh, okay Aeris. Whatever you say."

Aeris growled in annoyance. "I mean it Ashley."

"If you say so. I'll see you later Aeris. Call us sometime. Me and Shawn would love to hear from you and the rest of the family." She snickered as she sped up to avoid Aeris grabbing one of the other stuffed animals off the shelves and throwing it at the back of her head. Ashley turned out of the aisle quickly, laughing like a school girl at her friend's temper tantrum. Aeris simply stood there simmering over Ashley's smartass comment.

_"__Sometimes that bitch can be as bad as Leo."__,_ She thought irritably before tossing the teddy bear onto the trolley with the rest of the kitten stuff and started heading towards the check-out lanes. Her, sour mood was lifted however, when she realized a rather important fact: she was done. She could go home. She could finally relax! All she needed to do was check out and she could put all this behind her. It brought a barely noticeable smile to her face. Getting home, laying down in bed, just doing nothing. Maybe get some writing done.

All of those thoughts were cut off when she reached the checkout line. Now, the lines at Costco did tend to have a habit of being a little long, but this... this was just fucking torture. All of the lines were even longer than usual, and it also didn't help that all the other shoppers had their items stacked a mile high. It was as if the universe was conspiring against her to have the most unpleasant day humanly possible. She cradled her forehead in her paw, praying to whatever God that might be listening that the line she picked would go fast. Needless to say, God was having a break right now.

"_Thirty minutes... thirty, fucking, minutes. Someone please kill me."_, Aeris thought to herself as she waited in line. She was close to the till now, but that didn't stop the entire experience from being one the most mind-numbing in her entire life. If she were to sum up the entire thing in five words, they would be as follows: Bored, bored, bored, leg cramp.

When the cashier told Aeris that she was next, had she not been in a public place, she would've thrown her paws up in the air and shout "Thank God!". Of course, since she was in a public place, she didn't. Instead, she quietly pushed the trolley next to the till and put the less heavy objects onto the treadmill leaving the crib on the trolley. After a few moments, the woman at the till smiled and said, "Congratulations, when's it due?"

At first, Aeris was confused by what the woman meant. Then it hit her hard, "No, no, this isn't for me, this is for a friend of mine."

The woman apologized, "Oh, I'm sorry. You just had a certain look about you is all."

At first, Aeris gave an indifferent grunt to this. Then she thought about it. What did the cashier mean by having a "certain look". Temper heating a little, Aeris asked, "What did you just say?"

Having realized what she just said, and also realizing that Aeris was a little hot under the collar, the woman said quickly, "Now wait a minute! I didn't mean you looked big or anything, just disheveled."

Aeris raised an accusatory eyebrow, "And that's supposed to make me feel better how?"

"Um...", was all that the woman had to say for herself.

"Never mind.", Aeris dismissed, "I'm really not in the mood for anything right now."

The woman nodded and did her job quietly, averting her eyes from Aeris's gaze. Aeris smirked to herself a little. _Now_ she could leave. The checking out wouldn't really take all that long now that she was there, and no matter how late it was, it was never too late to take a nice, hot bath to wash her troubles away. Honestly, she absolutely needed some relaxation after the Hell that was this day.

All of the items having been bought without a hassle, Aeris's smirk turned into a relieved smile. _"Well, that's it."_, she thought to herself, _"It took me forever, but now that I have all the shit that Leo needs I can just go home."_

And go home she did. Yeah, surprisingly, she didn't run into some problem on the way home. No lost keys, plenty of room in the van to spare, no traffic jams, and it seemed that every light she encountered turned green. Aeris herself couldn't believe how well her luck was becoming. At one point she even made the rather naïve assumption that her luck was getting better. Sadly, it was not to be the case.

After she pulled into the parking lot, Aeris stepped out of the car and went directly to her apartment, not once stopping to consider bringing along all the stuff in the car. Leo could do that himself. Finally reaching the apartment, she reached for the doorknob. As she put her paw onto the knob, she heard a loud crash inside.

Aeris looked blankly at the door. Resisting every urge to just walk away, she hesitantly turned the knob, not expecting what she would find. When the door was fully opened, her mouth dropped open. Broken plates, a knocked over shelf, and... _stains_. Her shocked expression turned to anger when she saw Leo walk out of the hallway, looking rather worse for wear. His eyes widened when he saw Aeris, absolute terror filling them at the sight of her horrifying angry face. For a while, silence. She then said in a dangerously low voice, "What did you do?"

He licked his lips and laughed awkwardly, "Um... would you believe... nothing?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3: Leo's Little Kitten

General POV

As Aeris left the apartment to go and get the supplies for Scarlet, Leo was having the time of his life playing around with the little grey and white kitten. He lay on his bed, the tiny cat just a few inches from his face, giggling with glee. Leo smiled at her, his heart melting at the sheer amount of adorable Scarlet was radiating. After a bit, he brought her down to his chest, hugging her gently. As he did, she began to nuzzle her face against him. He laughed a little at the feeling of her tiny whiskers against his face, and he soon began rubbing his face against hers as well, causing the small child to giggle at both his ticklish fur, and the lovable gesture of affection.

Soon, Leo grew tired of the nuzzling, and sat up, still holding Scarlet across his chest, still smiling sweetly down at the child. "Scarlet, I'm going to be your daddy from now on. And as your brand new daddy, I'm going to teach you all the great things I know. You up for it?", Scarlet made a small meow in response, "That's a yes if I ever heard one!" Leo cheered.

He got up off the bed, still carrying her in his arms, and walked over to the kitchen. Carefully setting her down on the counter, Leo looked Scarlet in the eye and said, "Now Scarlet, I'm going to be teaching you some very vital life skills. For your first lesson, I'm going to teach you how to make the most important thing that you can do for your survival. What could this amazing item be, you might be asking yourself. Well, it's simply miraculous. It's the one thing, besides Xbox, that I can't live without. Scarlet, what I'm about to teach you, is how to make... a ham and cheese sammich!" Leo finished his speech off feeling as though he was on top of the world, proud and excited that he was being given the opportunity to pass on his collection of wisdom to the next generation.

Scarlet, however, tilted her head to the side and looked at Leo curiously, her bright blue eyes staring at him in wonderment. Leo didn't lose his confidence with his teachings however, and continued on with his rant. "Yes Scarlet, a sammich. One of the greatest inventions ever thought up by feline-kind. A sammich can be eaten in one paw, while the other paw is free to do other things, such as channel changing, grabbing a video game, or even grabbing another sammich! It's ingenious! Now, to make a sammich, you need a few things. First, you'll need the almighty plate."

Pausing for a second, Leo reached into the cabinet above him and grabbed a plate, setting it down on the counter beside Scarlet, and continued with his lesson. "Next, we'll be needing some bread. Don't go away baby girl." He said with a wink and walking off to fetch a loaf.

Leo then left Scarlet back on the counter again, going off to the pantry and grabbing the bread. Just as he took the loaf in paw, he heard a loud crash from the kitchen. Hurrying back into the kitchen , he saw that Scarlet was just fine, but now instead of a plate on the counter, there was a pile of jagged, broken pieces of the plate on the floor. Leo sighed. Aeris wasn't going to be happy about this...

"Scarlet, plates are meant for eating, not destroying. I know it's fun breaking things, but it's not the right thing to do."

The kitten just giggled in response, making Leo sigh in defeat. He couldn't stay mad at that face. "Okay, give me a minute."

After putting on his shoes, Leo came back into the kitchen and said, "Now, we'll clean this up after. For now, I'll get another plate, and the ham."

And so he placed another plate on the counter. After leaving it there to go to the refrigerator to get the ham, another loud crash echoed throughout the apartment. Turning around, he saw that Scarlet had once again knocked over a plate. Leo sighed once more, "Scarlet, what have I told you about destroying plates?" He whined to the white kitten.

His only response was her curious stare, not understanding that what she was doing was wrong. Shaking his head, Leo went back to work, grabbing the ham, cheese, and mayonnaise from the fridge. "Now", Leo continued, "I get the plate, and put the ingredients on like so."

As Leo unscrewed the lid of the mayo jar, he opened a nearby drawer to get a knife to spread it. But as he did, there was a loud thud. Looking down to the ground, he saw that Scarlet had knocked over the jar, spilling the contents on the floor. _"Better than another plate, I guess."_, Leo thought to himself, rubbing the back of his head. Maybe teaching the great art of sammich making wasn't the best of ideas. Picking Scarlet up off the counter, Leo walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, setting Scarlet down on his lap. "Well, maybe I should teach you something else... oh! I know! I'll teach you how to play video games!"

Lifting her up off his lap and setting her back on the couch, Leo went to the game shelf and started talking to himself, "Okay, what to play what to play... Mario Galaxy? Nah, she wouldn't be into that... Kingdom Hearts? Pfft, Aeris and her stupid JRPG crap... Ahh, here we go, Call of Duty."

After grabbing the game, he sat back down on the couch beside Scarlet and said, "Scarlet, if there is one skill you should learn besides the making of a ham and cheese sammich, it's playing a video game.

This game right here.", he held up the game to her face, "This is one of the best video games ever. Not to mention that this one right here has one of the best features ever. Two words. Nazi. Zombies."

He paused for a moment. Of course, him being Leo, he figured that a baby would automatically know what Nazis and zombies were, but she didn't. That didn't stop him from continuing though, "So, now I'm going to show you how to efficiently kill zombies, and get all the best weapons. Trust me, you're learning this from someone who's been playing this game forever."

Getting back up, he went to his Xbox and turned it on, putting in the game afterwords. Grabbing the controller, he sat back down next to Scarlet and said, "Now, watch and learn."

And as he started the game, she did watch. Her eyes became glued to the screen as he moved the cursor to the Nazi Zombies option, and started the game. Leo looked down at the small kitten, and she seemed to be mesmerized by the game. He smiled and thought to himself, _"Hehe, teaching her this is going to be a breeze."_

When the game started, he started his coaching, "Okay babe, here's how the game goes. You have to barricade yourself in the building before the zombies getcha. That, and you gotta get all the cool guns."

After his small explanation, he began his task of barricading the building to keep himself safe, when suddenly, the warning for the first wave came. Then there came the moaning sound of zombies. Although Leo didn't see it, the kitten sitting beside him had her ears folded, and a somewhat scared expression on her face. Then, when Leo had went to one of the doors to take care of the zombies at the doors, her eyes widened in terror. The sound that they made was bad enough, but the rotting flesh, the blank, glowing eyes, and the large gaping mouths were too much for her. She was horrified by these creatures that the large grey cat beside her had called zombies. So, she did what any frightened child at her age would do. She had started crying.

Leo was so focused on massacring the horde of undead that when the infant's cries rang out, he didn't hear them at first. It was only when Scarlet shrieked in fresh terror did his brain process the expressions of fright from the kitten. Leo dropped his controller, startled by the excessively loud crying, and turned to little Scarlet, covering her eyes with her tiny paws, and her ears folded flat against her head.

"Scarlet?", Leo said, scooping the small cat into his arms, a concerned look written clear across his face, "Scarlet, what's wrong honey? Tell daddy what's wrong."

Scarlet continued to cry, leaving Leo incredulous as to why she was crying, though to anyone else, it would have been painfully obvious. The only thing that managed to draw Leo's attention away from the terrified Scarlet was the television screen flashing a blood red, indicating that his character was being attacked and most likely swarmed by the reborn Reich.

"Damn it!", Leo cursed, temporarily forgetting that he was within proximity of young ears. He bent over and took hold of his discarded controller with his free right hand, while in his left he took Scarlet, trying to rock and comfort her, though her crying carried on without relent, turning her head into Leo's arm so that she might hide from the terrible moaning things.

And with that, gaming impossible took place. It's utterly impossible to effectively play any game on the Xbox with only a single hand, and Nazi Zombies was no exception. Although Leo put up a good fight against the undead, in the end, the spear-head combo of the crying Scarlet, crying because of the zombies, and the complete absence of focus, due to the crying Scarlet (who was crying because of the game), it's not to had to figure out what happened next.

GAME OVER. You lasted 1 ROUND.

"Aw, one round!?", Leo cried out, humiliation washing over him. One round was a disgrace! A shame! A...a uh...a whole bunch of other words to describe doing bad! Only lasting one round was something expected of Christmas n00bs, not someone of the status of Leo Leonardo the Third, zombie slaughter lord extraordinaire! It was a disgrace! A shame! A- wait... we already went through that.

ANYWAY.

While Leo moaned and groaned over his very unflattering turn-out in Zombies, Scarlet was beginning to calm, now that the terrible moaning things were gone. Sniffing a few last tears away, the white kitten slowly turned out of her hiding place, and though she was still trembling, albeit lightly, she was relieved to see that the monsters on the TV screen had disappeared. Leo, as we know, was not so pleased, an he continued to simmer in his embarrassment.

"Now Scarlet, you're not allowed to tell anyone about this.", Leo told the kitten, keeping his eyes fixated on the television screen before turning his gaze upon her, "Got that?"

Scarlet of course had no way of understanding what in the world the big grey thing was saying, but hey, it was Leo. We'll cut the guy some slack.

Taking a moment to fully grasp what had happened (Oh please God don't let Aeris find out, she'll never let me live it down...), Leo sighed deeply, saddened and a little disheartened at his second failed attempt at teaching Scarlet another vital life lesson. He could somewhat understand the difficulties in making a sandwich, (although that lesson would have to learned quickly if little Scarlet wanted to have any hope of being a productive woman of society one day...), but video games?! Video games were, like... IMPORTANT! They were one of the three basic needs! Food, Shelter, GAMES! How could the daughter of Leo Leonardo the Third not play video games?!

"Wait..." Leo thought out loud. "That was just Call of Duty...that only covers FPS's! There's still tons of others! YES! There's still hope!"

Leo's revelation sent his spirits soaring, and in light of it, he struck a victory pose of sorts, reminiscent of something called 'the Freddy Mercury rage face'. All in all, pretty stupid looking. It seemed, however, that Leo had forgotten that he was holding a small, one month old kitten in his arm, and in striking the pose, had inadvertently returned Scarlet's earlier fright. At the very highest point in Leo's stance, Scarlet sat perched in the palm of the grey cat's paw, looking down to the floor below. In her eyes, she was hundreds upon thousands of feet from the Earth, and she didn't like it.

"Meow..." The white kitten called out, hoping to gain Leo's attention.

"Huh? OH! Scarlet! Sorry sweetie.", Leo stifled a embarrassed chuckle as he brought Scarlet down and back near his chest, which she snuggled up to in relief. Leo chuckled at this, petting the kitten's head lovingly.

"You're such a cutie, Scarlet."

Scarlet replied with a minute meow, still snuggling against Leo. He could practically feel his heart turn to mush from the sheer amount of adorableness of it. He stood there a moment and continued to stroke Scarlet small head before placing her back down on the couch.

"Okay, so it's pretty clear that advanced gamenatics are beyond you for now." Leo lectured, feeling intellectual with his usage of such a smart sounding (and totally fake) vocabulary. "So, maybe we should be starting you off with something more elementary." Leo walked over to the game shelf, and briefly scanned across the scope of games before his eyes settled on what he knew was the perfect choice.

"Aha! Here we go. This'll be perfect!", Leo grabbed the game cartridge, blew the dust that had accumulated on it off, then stepped back in front of Scarlet, his expert choice in his right paw.

"This, Scarlet, is one of the all-time best games ever.", Leo held the case up, envisioning it as some great Indiana Jones-esque idol.

"This, my dear Scarlet, is Ocarina of Time.", Leo paused then, to allow Scarlet some time to take in the gravity of the cartridge in his paw. She simply looked on, confused beyond all words as to what Leo was saying, her mouth hanging open in wonderment. Leo, of course, saw this not as wonder, but instead awe, and felt a huge smile spread across his face with the thought that he was finally making some headway with Scarlet.

"Yes Scarlet, Ocarina of Time. The Zelda game of Zelda games. The grand daddy. This baby was what made the N64 kick so much ass. What with it's bosses, items, story, plot twists, romance... wait, romance? Was there romance...any who, this puppy right will blow your mind. All I gotta do is set up the old 64, and we can-"

Leo didn't get to finish that last bit of sentence. For you see, Leo was making his way over to the cabinet where he and Aeris kept all of their classic systems. He hadn't been paying much attention as to where he was stepping, instead trying add affect to his little speech for Scarlet. And wouldn't you know it, Leo being Leo, he wasn't looking where he was going, tripped on one of the long Xbox cords that snaked along the carpet. He tripped and fell hard, a resounding thud being heard across the apartment when he hit the ground, landing flat on his face. Scarlet giggled like mad at seeing this, not knowing any better. Leo, taking a minute to moan and remain motionless, stood up in what seemed like an instant. He brushed himself off quickly before striking a cool pose, trying to act as though nothing happened.

"I meant to do that." Leo announced, trying to sound confident, but knowing full well he'd made himself look like an ass (again). Scarlet continued to giggle from the spectacle, finding great humor in Leo's misfortune. Leo puffed up his cheeks in slight embarrassment of this, but again, he just couldn't stay angry at her cute face, or her laugh. He smirked a little, and said, "Okay Scarlet baby, you're going to play Ocarina of Time. This is the game that myself, at your age, beat, in two days. You think that you can do any better than that?"

Scarlet tilted her head at the cartridge, fascinated by the golden color. She extended her paws to grab it, holding onto the sides and becoming transfixed by the smooth plastic of the game. Leo smiled, thinking that she had finally come to her senses about video games. Leo spoke up once more, "Okay Scarlet, just wait here, and I'll get you the Nintendo 64, so that we can get started!", He turned away from her and to the cabinet, saying, "Now then, where did Aeris put that thing..."

As Leo was looking for the system, Scarlet had started to get bored. Sure, she liked it when the grey giant was talking and doing stuff, but she needed to do something exciting! She wanted to feel more of the smooth thingies that the giant was holding in front of her! She saw all the shiny and smooth things on the shelf, she wanted to touch them all! All the bright colors called out to her and she attempted to crawl off the couch. She scooted herself off of the cushion and fell down to the carpeted floor, luckily not hurting herself in the process. Picking herself up, she crawled over to the shelf, which was raised from the ground. Sitting down, she pondered on how to make her way up to the colorful and shiny boxes. Of course! She could climb up it!

As soon as Scarlet had her idea, Leo turned around, N64 in hand, saying, "Okay Scarlet, I got the... Scarlet?"

Raising an eyebrow, Leo looked around, wondering where she went. It was then he noticed where she was, and his eyes widened as a result. He took off running to where she was, screaming, "Scarlet, no! Don't climb up there, you'll get hurt!"

The kitten didn't pay him any mind, instead trying to reach the second shelf, where all the N64 carts were. As she attempted to climb, Leo, who was now utterly terrified, picked her up from the shelf, and exhaled in relief when he did. However, he failed to noticed that when he took her off the shelf, he bumped into it, tilting it backwards. Thankfully, it didn't tilt all the way backwards, which might've broke through the wall. But unthankfully, the momentum from the force of it going backward made it go forward, and it was just forward enough to fall down completely. But, thankfully once more, Leo was able to move the little kitten out of the way of the shelf. However, the weight of the shelf was too much, forcing Leo down to the ground, although he was still holding Scarlet in his outstretched hands.

A thunderous crash resonated about the entire apartment, caused by the large amount of games and consoles. After the sound had stopped, all Leo could do was make a small, "...Ow..."

As Leo was gaining his senses, Scarlet looked at what happened with a horror that she hadn't felt in years (Well, years to her anyway, her perception of time wasn't exactly like everyone else's). She didn't even know what happened to the giant, he just grabbed her, the thing fell, and he stopped moving. He just laid there for a year. Two years. Five. She didn't know why, but by the time he stopped moving for ten years, she started to cry.

Leo soon regained his senses, but there was still the matter of the crying Scarlet and the heavy shelf on top of him. Letting go of Scarlet, he strained himself to get himself up, all of the games on the self fell off as he pushed himself up and set the self up again. Sighing, he looked back down to Scarlet, who was still crying, but had started to calm down when she realized that he was okay. Looking away from her, he noticed all of the cases and cartridges on the floor, sighing once more. "Man.", Leo said to no one in particular, "Aeris is going to be sooooo pissed...", he looked back down to Scarlet, "...I guess this isn't the right time to teach you how to play video games."

Scarlet sniffled in response. Leo picked her up from the floor and said, "Shh, it's okay. Let's just... wait, what's that smell?"

Looking back down at the floor, he grimaced at what he saw, which could only be described tastefully as a large, smelly, stain. This made Leo much more fearful. A stain, any stain, especially from a bodily fluid was something that Aeris would not tolerate, under any circumstance. Becoming panicked, Leo ran into his bedroom and slammed the door shut. He set the kitten down on the bed, and started pacing and talking to himself, "This is bad... Aeris is going to hit me so much more now... oh God...", he turned to Scarlet, "What can I do?"

The kitten only tilted her head at the large gray thing, and yawned a little. Immediately, Leo's fear evaporated and replaced it with the warm fuzzies. He then said, "You tired, little kitty?"

She yawned again in response to this. He then said, "Yeah... maybe that's what we need to do. Take a nice long nap. I like the way you think."

The kitten yawned once more, and laid down on her side, preparing herself to go to sleep. Leo smiled and laid down next to her, holding her a little closer. The kitten then curled up next to him, and started to purr. Leo chuckled and soon fell to sleep, holding his little girl close.

A few hours later, Leo awoke to the

sound of a car pulling up next to the door. Slightly confused at first about what was going on, he snapped up as he remembered what had happened earlier. He also realized who's car was outside.

Quickly jumping up, and inadvertently waking up Scarlet, Leo bolted out of his bedroom to at least attempt to clean up before Aeris entered the door. In his haste, he accidentally knocked into a table in the hallway, making him fall over and cause a loud crash. Dazed for a moment, he ignored the pain and stood up, running to the entrance of the kitchen. But when he saw the pink cat in the doorway, he knew he was too late. His eyes widened when he saw Aeris, absolute terror filling them at the sight of her horrifying angry face. For a while, there was silence. She then said in a dangerously low voice, "What did you do?"

He licked his lips and laughed awkwardly, "Um... would you believe... nothing?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4: In Which Aeris Tries to Recuperate, but Fails Miserably.

Aeris let out a deep sigh as she slid down into the tub, the warm water relaxing every sore muscle in her body, allowing her to finally relax after her day of hardship. Her head entire body sank below the surface of the bubbled water, finally resting at the point where her nose was just above the water line, allowing her to breathe. She then closed her eyes, slowly and blissfully going into a sound and restful sleep... that is until a loud bang jolted her awake, making her jump, and causing the water inside the tub to slosh out the sides. Cursing slightly, she called out, "What was that!?"

"Sorry Aeris!", came the timid reply, "I was just getting the broom, but it fell to the floor!"

Muttering angrily to herself, she yelled back at him, "Well don't do it again!"

When she got no response, she immediately turned back to her bath. Sleep now a distant thought, Aeris instead reclined in the tub, and let her thoughts take her elsewhere, instead of trapped in an apartment with an idiot and a kitten. However, try as she might, she couldn't get what had happened earlier out of her head.

When she walked through the door and saw Leo standing there, she immediately demanded an explanation. Leo, being the complete dumbass that he is, decided to play ignorant. A bad decision on his part, because the first thing she did when she walked through the door was to punch him in the face, crying an expletive of his complete idiocy, and demanding that he clean it all up, but not before she watched him take in the crib, and put it in his room, as well as all the other supplies. She wanted to see him suffer a little bit for what he did. But after a few minutes of watching, she decided to cut him a little slack and brought in a few of the heavier things. But after that, she told him that she would be in the bathtub for quite a while, and that under no circumstances, disturb her in any way, shape, or form.

She should've anticipated that when silence was expected from Leo, he would try and make it as loud as humanly possible.

When her eyes had started to slide closed again, a high pitched screeching noise permeated the peace that Aeris was trying to maintain. With the name of a famous religious figure on her lips, she soon realized that it was music, probably from Leo's old stereo that he had turned onto the highest possible setting. As soon as she realized what it was, she shouted out, "Leo! Turn down that damn music, will ya!?"

The music was immediately shut off, but not after a groan from Leo, "Come on Aeris, I love this song!"

"No!", Aeris cried. Then, she had an idea in order to shut him up, "Besides, I really don't think it would be a good idea for a kid to listen to that kind of stuff."

"What, are you kidding?", Leo asked, laughing, "She loves it! When I turned it on, she started clapping and stuff! It was so cute, you should've seen it!"

"Yeah, I'm sure it was adorable...", she grumbled, folding her arms. After a moment of silence, the music started back up again, this time much more quiet. While Aeris still didn't like the fact that he was playing something that she was sure would make her ears bleed, she decided to ignore it in favor of continuing her relaxing soak. After a few minutes, she had tuned out the music, and sleep seemed to once more be just around the corner. But then, there came a knocking at the door. Groaning, Aeris called out, "What now, Leo!?"

Leo's response was a little halty, "W-Well... I... kinda need to pick up the shelf that I knocked down, and... I was kinda wondering if you could help me out with that?"

Aeris groaned loudly, obviously irritated by his question. Why would he even think that she would want to help him!? He was the one that ruined the house! He was the one that wanted to take in the stupid kitten! She said, "No. It's you're fault that the shelf fell, so you pick it up."

She could tell that Leo didn't leave. She could almost see him licking his lips and rubbing the back of his neck from behind the bathroom door. And sure enough, a few moments later, he said, "Please Aeris? You're...", he then mumbled something that she couldn't hear.

"What did you say?", Aeris asked.

Again, she could almost see Leo shuffling his feet before he said, "...You're stronger than I am..."

Aeris rolled her eyes, "Come on Leo. You can pick up a shelf, can't you?"

"Well, yeah...", he admitted, "But it's just soooooo heavy!"

"So?", Aeris asked, "You've lifted heavy things before."

"Well, not like this!", he whined.

Aeris sighed deeply. She really didn't want to continue this discussion, "Okay fine! Just... can I please just relax for an hour? Please?"

"Okay!", Leo said, immediately going into his normal, jaunty tone, "Also, when you're done, I want to show you what else I did!"

Aeris responded with a disinterested, "Eh.", before realizing what Leo said. She turned to the door and said, "Wait, what else did you do?"

She didn't get a reply. Instead, there was the silence that she so craved. Now, however, it seemed... almost scary. Whenever Leo wanted to show her something, it near always ended with bad results. And that was not something that Aeris was willing to put up with today, not after everything that she went through. Still, she was able to get some form of reprieve from all the noise. So, she slowly closed her eyes, and sank into the water, sleep slowly overtaking her...

...Only for her to be reawakened 57 minutes later with a pounding at her door, and the cry of, "Aeris, it's been an hour! It's time for you to get out of there and help me with the stuff, and for me to show you the awesome thing I did!"

Aeris could practically hear shattering glass as her eyes opened, her nap disturbed in a very rude manner. She didn't say anything for a few moments, but then Leo knocked again, saying, "Yoohoo! Aeris, you alive in there? Because if you-"

"I'm up!", she shouted, stepping out of the tepid bathwater and onto the cool tile of the bathroom floor. Shivering a little, she reached for a towel and her hairdryer and started to dry off. The warm current of air kept her from getting too cold as she rubbed her towel on all the places where water matted her fur. When she finished, she dressed herself in a tank top and jeans, and walked out of the bathroom, eyes cautious to Leo's supposed, 'awesome' accomplishment.

No sooner then stepping foot outside of the bathroom, Leo popped up next to her, Scarlet slung in his arms, and proclaimed, "Hey Aeris! How was your bath?"

Aeris groaned under her breath, slightly annoyed by Leo's cheery attitude, and said, "Fine. Now what is this, 'awesome thing' that you wanted to show me?"

He smiled and bowed slightly before saying, "Right this way, Ms. Cole.", and then walking into the living room.

Aeris raised her eyebrow and slowly followed him, weary of what might have been waiting around the corner. And when she reached it, she felt like she had to cover her eyes. Not because what she saw was a horrible, God awful thing that would make any sane person vomit after looking at it for too long. Quite the contrary in fact. It was... fantastic!

Aeris stood slack jawed as she looked around the room. The linoleum floors and counter tops were all polished to a mirror-like shine, and they almost appeared to be glistening. The carpets had been vacuumed, and the area where Scarlet had had her accident earlier was now just a memory, as copious amounts of carpet cleaning products had been used to get the spot out of the carpet. All in all, everything was... for lack of a better word, perfect.

Leo smiled when he saw her face, and said, "You like it? It all took 30 minutes of really hard work. I mean, I thought that spot would never come out. It took, like, 8 minutes to get it out."

Aeris really wasn't paying much attention to Leo. All she had was one thought in her mind, and then she decided to voice it. It was just a simple, "...How?"

Leo chuckled, "You'd be surprised at how fast someone can do something when they're threatened. Besides, my little-itty-bitty-pretty-kitty here helped me out."

Aeris was snapped out of her daze for a moment when she heard the rapid-fire spouting of words, saying, "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Leo raised his eyebrow as Scarlet batted at the bell on his collar, making it jingle a little, "What was what?"

"All those words.", Aeris clarified.

"Ummm...", Leo thought, before realizing what she meant, "You mean little-itty-bitty-pretty-kitty?"

"Yeah.", Aeris confirmed, now realizing that it was meant to be a nickname for the kitten, "So... why that?"

"Well... she's... little... she's itty-bitty... she's pretty... and she's a kitty. So, I combined them and formed the ultimate nickname.", he said, looking down to Scarlet's war with his bell.

Aeris however, crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, then said, "Doesn't mean that it doesn't sound stupid."

"In any case, thanks for the help. I'm über-tired from all the work. So I'm gonna take a little nap for a bit." Leo responded, yawning shortly after just to prove his point. At that, tiny Scarlet was able to fully grasp at his bell and started tugging at it when Leo dropped his neck too low out of exhaustion, all while mewling and kicking her tiny feet as she tried to claim the melodious sphere for herself.

It was such a cute sight for Aeris to behold; and humorous for her as well since Leo tried to pull out of her grasp, only for the tiny girl to accidentally scratch him and, with a defeatist sigh, droop his neck low for Scarlet to play with the bell once again. Truth be told, Scarlet's attempts to reach it did irk him a little, but just a little. So he really didn't mind in the grand scheme of things. Right now, he was just tired after all of the ordeals of cleaning up their living space.

With that, Aeris reached around his neck and began to undo the strap that held his bell to his neck. Leo was surprised and questioned, "Whoa, wait, what are you doing?"

She only removed it from his neck and then took Scarlet from his hands before dangling his loose collar in from of her to play with, and immediately she did; trying once again to claim it, as if though it belonged solely to her. "You said you were going to take a nap, right? Go. I'll watch her for a while, I guess..." Aeris answered.

"But you didn't have to take my bell..." He sadly responded. 

"It's either that or Scarlet throws a hissy fit." Aeris lied. She had never seen what happened if Scarlet didn't have her way and only assumed such things, but, thankfully, Leo bought the bait.

"Alright..." He then knelt down in front of Scarlet and nuzzled his face on hers, saying, "See ya later, little-itty-bitty-pretty-kitty!" The little kitten giggled as he playfully scratched her head and Leo left afterwords, yawning loudly as he did.

A slamming sound from his room confirmed that he had flopped onto his bed, snoring sounds ringing only moments later.

"Idiot..." Aeris mused to herself as his snoring rang loudly from his room, which she closed to reduce the noise.

As she held Scarlet, the girl plopped herself back on the couch, clearly still needing a break herself despite her relaxation in the bathtub earlier. But tiny Scarlet yawned loudly, as loudly as she could while stretching her small limbs inside of her blanket, and started to snuggle inside of it, seeking a little nap herself.

"She's acting more and more like the idiot..." She mused to herself as Scarlet fluttered her eyes, obviously ready to sleep herself... "But that makes things easier on me. At least she won't cry now."

Lying down on her back on the couch, she let Scarlet rest in a small pocket space between herself and the couch's arm. Once put there, the kitten quickly accepted the spot and almost instantly fell asleep. Aeris thought about taking a nap too. The idea sounded pleasing, but she was far more thoughtful of the situation than Leo could ever possibly be. Someone had to be awake until the other was up. Who's to say Scarlet wasn't just taking a quick power nap and would possibly be awake before them? If that was the case, then what kind of dangers could she get herself into? Hell, she could wind up pulling a 'Baby's Day Out' without their knowing until she was at the zoo in a lions den.

Making the matter clear to herself, the oddly colored feline grabbed the TV remote and flicked it on, softly rubbing her hands across Scarlet's sleeping frame.

"TV stopped being good ever since Clone High went off the air...", She groaned after the first hour of finding nothing interesting to watch... And after deleting Leo's recorded show, "1,000 Ways to Die". Seriously, death wasn't funny... except that drug lord who inhaled diamond dust thinking it was cocaine; now that one was funny, in a morbid twisted way.

As she attempted to find something, her cellphone suddenly sang loudly as someone attempted to reach her. Aeris grabbed and answered it without looking at ID, just so she wouldn't wake Scarlet. Thankfully, the kitten only stirred a little before heaving a sigh, clearly still asleep.

Giving a soft smile, she placed her phone up to her ear before answering, "Hello?"

"Um... Hi, Aeris.", a easily recognized voice on the other end said. 

"Ashley?", Aeris asked, slightly confused as to why her friend would call her, "That you?" 

"Uh-huh.", the brown cat on the other end said with her trademark cheer. 

"Oh, hi. I was just getting bored over here.", Aeris said, genuinely glad that there was finally someone to talk to. 

"Bored? Normally you'd tell me about something dumb that Leo did...", Ashley said, seeming a little surprised by this. 

"Well...", Aeris said with slight hesitance, unsure of if she wanted to talk to Ashley about everything that happened. But she decided that she should, and said, "He did bug me a lot when I tried to get a break, not to mention he wrecked the entire apartment trying to watch out for Scarlet..." 

"Really?", the brown feline said, sounding not all that surprised. 

"Yeah. I made him clean up." 

"Or else?", Ashley asked. 

"Or else.", Aeris confirmed. 

Ashley giggled a little in response and said, "Typical Aeris." 

"What?", Aeris said, responding back with her own chuckle, "I told him not to wreck the place. He did. He cleans it up in an hour or die. There's nothing wrong with that, now, is there?" 

"No... Nothing wrong with a threat on someone's life.", Ashley said, continuing on in her joking manner 

"Shut up!", Aeris cried out jokingly, now feeling lighthearted due to her friend's call, "So Ash, whatcha call for?" 

"Oh...", Ashley sounded much more hesitant now for some reason. Aeris could immediately tell she wanted to ask her a question, "Well... I wanted to know if... Maybe... I could see Scarlet... Soon." 

"What?", the pink cat asked, raising her eyebrow, even if Ashley couldn't see it. 

"I wanted to see Scarlet... If that's okay with you.", she said, as though she were expecting Aeris to say no.

Instead, all that Aeris asked was, "Why?"

"Well...", Ashley began, gathering her thoughts, "Babies are cute... and I just wanna see her so badly! Please, Aeris, please? 

Aeris was taken aback by this question. Yes, she knew that Ashley could get like this, but the fact that her friend was just this eager to see Leo's latest mistake, "... I... Guess that's fine. It's not like I'm against it..." 

"Really!?", Ashley half shouted, half squeed. 

"Sure, Ash.", Aeris said with a chuckle, holding the phone a little ways away from her ear, so that Ashley's screams didn't rupture her eardrum. 

"That's great! I can't wait to see her!", Ashley cried in sheer joy. Aeris could almost picture her dancing around in joy. 

"So, when do you want to come over?", Aeris asked as she shook her head in something akin to amusement. 

Ashley paused for a moment, thinking, before she continued, saying, "Well... I'm busy for today, but I'll give you a call when it clears up so I can visit." 

"Alright.", Aeris said with a shrug. 

"That's all from me. I gotta go. Bye, Aeris!", the joyous cat said. 

"Bye, Ashley.", Aeris said in a rather impassive tone before Ashley hung up. As she put the phone down, she then mused to herself, "That was odd... In the normal sense of odd..." Normally, it'd be something a little more oddball... Shaking it off, Aeris returned to her television. After a few minutes, the phone once again rung. Groaning to herself, the pink cat muttered, "Okay... Who is it this time?", and once again picked up the phone. Her tone and expression changed to something a little brighter when she saw who it was, and said to herself, "Oh. It's Shannon..."

Shannon was another of Aeris's good friends, albeit a little... off putting at times. Aeris didn't have anything against her... Yet. It's just that Shannon was so vastly different. How and why would the wet dreams of many guys at school even remotely hang out with her and her merry band of idiots? Oh well, it really didn't matter. In the end, Shannon was still a good and loyal friend. Shrugging her shoulders, she answered the phone.

"Hey, Shannon. What's up?", Aeris asked, deciding to be the one asking the questions this time around. 

However, the raccoon on the other end would have none of that, and said, "Aeris... Are you sure Scarlet isn't yours?"

At that she gave a perplexed look. What the hell was Shannon even implying? She then voiced this thought by saying, "What are you getting at?" 

Aeris heard an evil giggle on the line, "Honestly, are you sure Scarlet isn't your daughter?" 

"SHANNON!", Aeris screamed, her cheeks flushing red in both indignation and embarrassment that Shannon could ever think of such a thing. 

"Relax, I'm kidding.", Shannon said with a laugh, "It's always fun to tick you off." 

"Ugh...", Aeris groaned out, not really angered, but not all that happy either. But then a thought came to her mind, "How did you even find out about Scarlet?"

"Simple.", Shannon said as if it were extremely obvious, "Ashley told Clarissa, and Clarissa told me. There, see?"

Aeris sighed. Of course Ashley told Clarissa. They told each other everything. And the chatty wolf probably couldn't wait to tell Shannon. It was like a demented sewing circle, each and every one of them contributing just a little to the pink cat's annoyance. Still they were her friends, and nothing would change that.

But going back to the conversation, Shannon then said, "I bet he makes the cutest daddy."

"Please...", Aeris said, rolling her eyes, "If Leo EVER became a father to anyone, that poor baby would try to kill itself with his piss poor talents..." 

"Well, her mother is with her, right?", the raccoon said slyly. 

"What?", Aeris asked, once again confused. 

"Oh come on, mommy!", Shannon said, while barely suppressing a giggle, "You fooled with the dork and here's little Scarlet!" 

"SHANNON!"Aeris screamed, her blush returning, "JESUS CHRIST! I HAVE NEVER AND WILL NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT WITH ANYONE!"

At that outburst, Scarlet stirred and looked up at her fellow caretaker, clearly perturbed over being awakened by that outburst. Aeris noticed her little childish glare and picked the tiny kitten up in her free arm and started rocking her softly, hoping to put her back to sleep.

She sheepishly apologized to the kitten as she rocked her to and fro in her arms.

It didn't take long before Shannon started talking again, "And momma's holding her tiny baby in her arms, speaking sweet nothings and saying-" 

"Bye, Shannon.", Aeris said, cutting the raccoon off.

With that, Aeris hung up, no longer wanting to hear those comments. But even though she did, she still had the sneaking suspicion that Shannon was, as Leo would say, ' "LMAO'ing" like hell' at her home... She gave a heavy sigh, already regretting answering the phone. She then noticed that she was still rocking Scarlet. Wondering how she was, she looked down, only to meet those light blue eyes looking softly at her, her infantile frame uttering tiny coos of contempt.

It softened the tough woman's heart considerably... Just watching this tiny form of life... It was such a sweet sight to behold... "I'm sorry about that... Are you mad? I would be..." Aeris asked the infant, somewhat berating herself for thinking that she could respond. But Scarlet cooed in response, shuffled a little inside the blanket she was wrapped in, and rested her head against Aeris's chest, the latter somewhat flabbergasted at her last action. She didn't know how to raise an infant... But so far this wasn't so bad... "Thanks for not being mad at me for yelling... My friends can be pretty stupid sometimes..."


	6. Chapter 6

Mini Chapter: Attachment

Leo yawned as he awoke from his nap, feeling refreshed after having slept for some time. However, when he looked out the window, he saw that it was dark. He sighed as he got out of bed. He hated that whenever it happened. He never knew whether or not that meant it was still the same day, or he woke up the next day without even realizing it.

Still, what's done is done, and he left his room in search of something to do. Of course, he could always play his games, but considering the fact that it was night, and Aeris would probably be asleep right now, playing games would be an unwise thing to do. He didn't want to go the rest of his life with a mouthful of broken teeth, no siree.

He stepped into the living room, and noticed that the TV was on, and that Aeris was still sitting at the couch. Well, that eased Leo's mind somewhat. He could probably be as loud as he wanted without consequence. But then he heard the snoring. The loud, loud snoring. He chuckled to himself. Aeris might have tried to hide it, but there was no denying the fact that whenever she went to sleep, that she would be snoring near instantly. Of course, whenever this little fact was brought up, she would hurt him, so it was not really a good idea for him to say anything about it, and it would never be bought up again. Ever.

Either way, he knew that she was sleeping, so he decided to make himself scarce and get himself a midnight snack. Quickly settling on a bag of chips, he was about to carefully make his way back to his room when he heard a soft mewl coming from the couch. Turning around to face Aeris once more, he noticed that little Scarlet had buried her head into the pink cat's stomach, using it as a pillow. Leo couldn't help but feel as though it was possibly one of the most adorable things he's seen. It was like that ever since the little white kitty showed up, and he loved it all. To see Aeris, mean ol' Aeris, holding this cute little kitten while said kitten nuzzled into her stomach was just heart-melting.

He smiled. Maybe Aeris will warm up to her After all.

**OKAY! I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, soooooooo sorry! I didn't mean for updates to not happen! This is horrible, not only for me, but for you guys! God, I need to get better at this! But hey, some news: I'm planning on turning this into a novel! Of course, the animal/VG Cats thing will have to go, and character names will have to change, but still, a novel! Let me know what you think... that is, if anyone still cares... anyway, I'll try and update this more! I hope that this mini-chapter lets you know that I'm alive. Again, I deeply apologize...**


End file.
